Various devices have been developed to enable consumers to record video and/or audio programs for later presentation. To this end, PVR (Personal Video Recorder) functions are offered by digital devices via for example a USB (Universal Serial Interface) port that allows connecting external devices for storage such as memory sticks and hard disc drives. One of the features that make PVRs popular with users is the possibility to operate a so-called time-shift of a live broadcasted television program, i.e. the user can pause and resume the program. This functionality comes in addition to a more classical recording function. The drawback is that the PVR features require more or less scarce resources such as a tuner, demultiplexer (demux) and memory. For receivers with a front end such as for satellite or terrestrial reception, it is necessary to add a second tuner to the device if a PVR possibility is offered on a receiver, to allow a user to simultaneously visualize a broadcast program and record another one. Also, for receivers with or without front end (an example of receiver without front end is an IPTV receiver) the demultiplexer must be capable of demultiplexing multiple digital video and/or audio streams at a same time. As to the memory, considerable memory space is required in the case of video recording, and in particular in the case of recording of a broadcast program transmitted in HD (High Definition) format. The memory requirements are even more important when a user operates multiple PVR functions at a same time. For example, when a user activates a timeshift on a live broadcast program, a memory zone is required for a timeshift buffer. When at a same time the user is recording the program, a second memory zone is required for storing the program. As another example, if in a household equipped with multiple Set Top Boxes (e.g. living room, bedrooms) multiple users of these STBs record or timeshift a broadcast programs starting the recording at different times, memory zones are required for each record and timeshift. Separate resources are thus allocated for each function; there is no factorization of resources.
There is thus a need for further optimization of prior art solutions.